Behavioral Syndromes

Somebody is not able to control his or her eating behavior. They either eat too much, or eat very little. People sometimes suffer a sleep disturbance in the absence of any physical disease. Some people are unable to participate in a sexual relationship, as they would wish.Any of these conditions can cause significant psychological disturbance. Behavioral syndromes associated with physiological disturbance and physical factorscan mainly classified into the following categories.

Eating disorders

Eating disorders are primary focused on abnormal pattern of eating behavior.A common type of eating disorder,Anorexia nervosais characterized by deliberate weight loss.They may have a self-perception of being too fat, with an intrusive dread of fatness, which leads to a self-imposed low weight threshold. Another common type of eating disorder is Bulimia nervosa.

It characterized by repeated bouts of overeating and an excessive preoccupation with the control of body weight, leading to a pattern of overeating followed by vomiting or use of purgatives. Obesity associated with other psychological disturbances, Binge-eating, and Psychogenic vomiting are also clinical features of eating disorder.

Nonorganic sleep disorder

This category includes only those sleep disorders in which emotional causes are considereda primary factor, and which are not due to identifiable physical disorders. The following prominent clinical features characterize this disorder:

  • Unsatisfactory quantity and/or quality of sleep
  • Difficulty falling asleep
  • Difficulty staying asleep
  • Early wakening.
  • Excessive daytime sleepiness
  • Problems in the sleep-wake schedule
  • Sleepwalking [somnambulism]
  • Sleep terrors [night terrors]
  • Nightmares

Sexual dysfunction, not caused by organic disorder or disease.

Sexual dysfunction covers the various ways in which an individual is unable to participate in a sexual relationship as he or she would wish. Sexual response is a psychosomatic process and both psychological and somatic processes are usually involved in the causation of sexual dysfunction.The following clinical features characterize this disorder.

  • Loss of sexual desire
  • lack of sexual enjoyment
  • Failure of genital response
  • Orgasm either does not occur or is markedly delayed.
  • Premature ejaculation
  • Penile entry is either impossible or painful
  • Pain during sexual intercourse
  • Excessive sexual drive